


Connected

by HeppyPepperoni



Category: Magisterium Series - Holly Black & Cassandra Clare
Genre: A magic wire that can sometimes turn invisible, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Call Being Awkward™, Except it's a wire, First Kiss, Gay, M/M, Red String of Fate, Soulmate AU, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 04:27:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11524554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeppyPepperoni/pseuds/HeppyPepperoni
Summary: Soulmates were an oddity.Stories were passed from generation to generation, about the mages who found paintings on their skin, clocks attached to their limbs, writing on their wrists… Stories about the rare men and women who would find their soulmates, and live together for eternity. Even when they passed on they’d remain connected.The one time Call’s father talked about soulmates, he had made some biting comment about soulmates belonging in the magic world, a world Call would never be a part of.At the time, Call had believed him.





	Connected

Soulmates were an oddity. 

Stories were passed from generation to generation, about the mages who found paintings on their skin, clocks attached to their limbs, writing on their wrists… Stories about the rare men and women who would find their soulmates, and live together for eternity. Even when they passed on they’d remain connected. 

The one time Call’s father talked about soulmates, he had made some biting comment about soulmates belonging in the magic world, a world Call would never be a part of.

At the time, Call had believed him.

\---

The first time he showed true doubt towards Alastair was when Call came home from school with a wire wrapped around his wrist. It was twisted golden and silver, and the rest of the wire dropped down, trailing behind him. It didn’t look like it ever ended— It didn’t even seem real. It looked like something his imagination has burned into his vision. Though, a wire was certainly a weird imaginary friend (At least, he assumed that was what it was supposed to be. His ignorant mind couldn’t conjure up any other plausible ideas.) After Call showed him, Alastair had taken Semiramis and sawed at the wire for two hours straight before he sighed and said, “Call, you have a soulmate.”

“You mean— This thing _ends_?!”

“Yes. And it ends with your soulmate. Whoever is at the end of this wire is The One, Call.”

“... The One?” Call responded apprehensively, eyes pooling with distaste and distrust. He didn’t know what his father meant by that, and he didn’t exactly _want_ to know, either.

“Your destined partner, Call. Be it platonic or romantic.” Alastair sighed and scratched the back of his neck. “Don’t worry your head over it. Soulmates belong in the magic side of things, and you have no business there.”

Call nodded, numbly. Whatever his dad was ranting about, it sounded nonsensical. Stupid. Useless.

He laughed to himself about it later. _Him?_ A _soulmate_?

\---

When they were headed to the Iron Trial, Alastair demanded that his son hid his wire. Having a soulmate would only make him more likely to get into the Magisterium. So, Call had shoved his sleeve over the wire and made some remark about how no one would even care.

After all, soulmates are just a load of crap. 

When they arrived, Call felt a pull in his wire. _Your soulmate is so close,_ it seemed to whisper. _Don’t you want to find them?_ He tugged at his sleeve in irritation, shoving it over his hand, almost covering his fingers entirely.

He almost went insane trying to hide his wire during the tests. Not only was it difficult, because of how _obviously there_ the wire was, but it was painful, too. In the crowd of test-takers was his soulmate, and the wire seemed hell-bent on forcing Call to interact with them. He was wincing at the burning sensation circling around his wrist the entire time. They all probably thought he was weird. Oh well, not like _he_ cared. He dealt with this all the time at school, after all.

… Some boy named Aaron was probably the only one who didn’t.

What a weirdo.

\---

When he got picked, the burning feeling he had just gotten used to stopped burning. Not that that was a good thing. Instead, it was replaced by what felt like tiny, pin-prick-sized knives were being shoved and twisted inside his very _bones._ He bit his lip to keep from crying out, and cursed whatever reigning deity had it in for him. As he walked up next to the girl named Tamara and Aaron, the “nice one”, he felt something rise in his throat. Upon further examination, he realized that he was not throwing up, and that instead it felt like the air in his mouth was solidifying and choking him. He swallowed slowly as a foreign, strange taste hit his tongue. Whatever this was, it was far from normal. Probably some stupid soulmate thing. He tugged at his sleeve and glared at the wire that, at this point, he was sure only he could really see. It was so translucent that the only people who would be able to view it were the ones who were certain it was there.

Or the good few Masters of the Magisterium that were staring at it right now. Oh no, were they going to force him to stay in their freaky cave school so they could do creepy experiments on him? He shook his head as if to clear out these stray thoughts (even though they wouldn’t disappear) and eyed his fellow apprentices. 

Tamara looked cold, steely, almost like she was the embodiment of ice itself. She had an elegance about her, refined and controlled, but also shaky, as if the “Goddess of Ice” persona she had about her was a front— Rather, an illusion. She stood with her shoulders squared forwards, chin jutting out in front of her sharply. Her eyes were pointed at the ground, and Call thought that she might be trying to disappear. For a moment, Call wondered why. 

Aaron Stewart was nice, Call knew. Perhaps too nice, but, he was the only person who’d actually treated Call decently— Of course, as soon as Call escaped the Magisterium, he’d forget all about him. Call already knew what the boy looked like, but it was the little details that he never payed attention too when it came to first impressions that he was interested in now.

Aaron had messy blonde hair, sticking up in all kinds of weird places— It looked like he’d tried to comb it with his fingers, and his eyes were the color of a forest and an emerald all at once, swimming with what felt like a thousand shades of green. His arms, like Call’s, were covered by his sleeves entirely, his wrists obscured, but it was easy to notice the faint outlines of muscles against the constricting fabric of his shirt. 

When Aaron noticed Call staring (because of _course_ he did), he waved a bit. 

Call laughed awkwardly and waved back, careful to conceal the sparkling golds and silvers of the wire beneath his sleeve.

\---

It became a lot harder to hide the wire while at the Magisterium. First of all, the Iron Year uniforms were long-sleeved, yes, but super baggy and barely contained by the wristbands— Actually, Call was pretty sure all of the uniforms were like that. Except for the Masters (Their black robes were even baggier).

Anyways, it wasn’t very easy, considering that he didn’t wear his wristband over his wire. Of course, his concerns were met with patronizing looks from all the adults he asked if he could modify his uniform to be tighter-fitting. In the end, he showed up to his first class with Master Rufus (and Tamara. And Aaron.) wearing tacky green garden gloves… Master Rufus pulled him out of the room when Call didn’t take them off. Even when prompted.

“Call, take the gloves off. I’m not going to repeat myself.”

“No.”

“If this another scheme to get kicked out of the Magisterium, young man, I can tell you that it is far from working— In fact, it is making you look fairly childish in front of your peers, and for no reason!” Master Rufus said, sternly. “Take. Them. Off.”

“I thought you said you weren’t going to repeat yourself—”

Master Rufus gave him a scary look.

He shut up.

Master Rufus leaned forward to remove the gloves, dark hand reaching for the edge of the first glove, and then he tugged, the bright lime green fabric slipping off his grossly pale and stick-like arms. He let out a girly screech, “Wait! No! Stop!” He hoped Tamara and Aaron didn’t hear that. God, they’d think he was even _more_ of a loser.

It was too late. The glove was gone, and the faded wire was fully visible to Master Rufus. He worried his lip as Master Rufus dropped the glove in— Not… Shock? He looked surprised, but kind of smug, like he was betting that this was the answer to Call’s behavior, but didn’t know for certain. Well, now he did.

“A soulmate,” Master Rufus stated slowly, deadpan. He looked at Call’s eyes, raising an eyebrow at the boy. “Is that really the reason for all this fuss?”

He gulped. “Y-Yes.”

Master Rufus sighed deeply. “I won’t ask why’d you go to the trouble of hiding your wire, but you really can’t wear those ridiculous things to class—” He was, of course, referring to the gardening gloves. “—or any gloves, for that matter. They interfere with magic.”

“Then what do I do?” Call responded quickly. He’d rather worry about fixing this problem then his other one (this being his “needless” embarrassment).

Master Rufus waved his hands around, and suddenly, the wire was gone. “It’s advanced air magic to camouflage the existence of something— _Especially_ something magical like a soulmate wire. It’s bonafide magic of the soul, too, which makes it even harder.”

“But you can do it because…?” Call wearily trailed off.

Master Rufus’s lips formed a tight-lipped smile. “I’ve always been quite talented with the air element.”

“Great, thanks, can we get back to the lesson now?” He turned to head back into the room, taking a few steps forward.

“Not so fast, Call.” Master Rufus said. “If you’ve been paying attention to your wire, you’d’ve noticed that it wasn’t touching the ground before I concealed it.”

“Yeah, so what? It’s just being weird again, like this time it made me feel like I was dying at the Iron Trial,” Call waved his hand dismissively. “If that’s all you have to say, I’m going back in. Respectfully, of course. I’m ignoring your orders… Respectfully.”

“That’s not it— Call!” Master Rufus raised his voice… Whoa. “If you felt that at the Iron Trial, and it’s short enough to not drag on the ground… Call, your soulmate _must_ be in this school. In fact, it’s very, _very_ likely that said soulmate is in your year. You must’ve met them already—”

“...Not to burst your bubble or anything, but I… Respectfully don’t care.” Call coughed awkwardly, and raced back into the “classroom” when he saw his chance.

Master Rufus massaged the bridge of his nose. “This is worse than I thought.”

\---

Over the next couple days, Aaron was growing increasingly agitated for seemingly no reason. It was scary, because Aaron was charming and nice, and Call didn’t like seeing “really really nice guys” snapping at others and hissing insults at anyone who stepped too close. That was something Jasper did, not _Aaron_. Tamara noticed something was wrong, too. 

They formulated a plan. A stupid and not too thought-out plan, but a plan nonetheless.

They left to their living space early into dinner, and prepared for Aaron’s return from the cafeteria. When he inevitably did, Call threw a blanket over him and Tamara wrapped some weird cord thing (why did she have a _charger_ on her?) around him to tie the blanket in place. After that, the two carried him to the couch and Call sat on his legs.

“What the h— What’s going on?! Get away from me you piece of—!” Aaron yelled, muffled by the warm blanket.

“Hey, chill!” Call cried out. “Stop trying to throw me off your legs, agh!”

“Wh— _Call?_ ” 

“And Tamara,” Call added. "She’s here too. She’s next to you— Your head. She’s sitting next to your head. I’m the one on your legs, if you didn’t already figure that out…” He chuckled darkly beneath his breath.

Tamara took that as her cue. “Aaron, we have brought you here today to ask you why you have been so twitchy—”

“ _Twitchy?_ I was thinking he was more agitated, or freaky, or just, y’know “freaking out”, but _twitchy? _”__

__“—lately. Don’t question my vocabulary, Call. Anyways, Aaron, tell us what’s wrong! We’re your classmates!” Tamara continued demandingly._ _

__“I would’ve said “friends”, Tamara, that seems less hostile.”_ _

__“U-Uh… Okay. I’m sorry, I just. I’ve been living with something all my life, and it disappeared, okay? Up and vanished like thin air! Sometimes I think I can still see it there, but… It’s gone and I’m freaked out.” Aaron rambled._ _

__“Wait, what is it?” Tamara cut his ranting off. “If you’ve lost something important to you, we can help you find it.”_ _

__“Nonono, it’s not like _that_. Actually, I’m not sure exactly what it is…” He paused. “I— I can show you guys, but I need this blanket gone.” He squirmed a little._ _

__Reluctantly, they removed the cord, then the blanket, and they tensed up as Aaron stretched. When he made no move to escape, the two relaxed. “So what is it?” Call asked._ _

__“Yeah,” Tamara agreed. “Let’s see it.”_ _

__Aaron nodded slowly and pulled up his right sleeve._ _

__Call felt the same solid air rising in his throat when he saw it. Right there— Right there was a wire. Gold and silver twisting and twining around each other in a delicate spiral. He suddenly had a very good idea of what had happened to make Aaron act this way._ _

__“I’ve lived with this wire on me for most of my life,” Aaron started. “I can’t get it off, and sometimes it does weird things like make my wrist burn or feel like it’s being stabbed. That happened a ton right before and during the Iron Trial. It was… Pretty painful. The wire, uh, fades a bit when I don’t want people to see it. You either have to super good with magic or know it’s there for certain in order to see it when it’s like that. It— Uh, it just, goes on forever now. But, it looks like it’s gotten shorter, because it usually doesn’t drag on the floor?”_ _

__Tamara held her chin in her hand. “Hmm… I think I’ve heard of this before. My sister told me about it once, I think. She was fawning over it for some crazy reason…”_ _

__Call fidgeted with his hands, picking at his fingernails. Tamara had once told him that it was a terrible habit, but he didn’t really care about that right now. It’s not like he was planning to become a nail polish model or something. Besides, this, _this_ , was a development that gave him enough nerves to pee himself. Gross. “I— U—Um, I mmiight—t know what thatt i—is.” He cleared his throat. “Um, it’s a, uh, soul… Soulmate. Wire.”_ _

__Aaron and Tamara were either interested in what he had to say or thought he was crazy. Call opted for the former. “Go on,” Tamara prompted._ _

__“Uh, well… Your soulmate… Is at the end of the wire. Your destined partner…?” Call coughed. “Like, “The One”?”_ _

__“Ohhhhhhhhh,” Tamara nearly yelled. “That makes so much sense! So like, that wire is magic of the soul! And on the end of it is someone important to you, Aaron,” she translated._ _

__“Um, it can be platonic or romantic… So it could just be your best friend forever,” Call mumbled._ _

__“Or it’s a really cute girl just waiting to date me, and because this thing’s so short, I bet she’s…” He trailed off. “—In this school, but it doesn’t matter, because I can’t see the wire. Oh, well.”_ _

__At that moment, Call thought that Aaron looked like a kicked puppy._ _

__“She probably died…?” Call asked unhelpfully._ _

__“No, she’s not dead!” Aaron declared. “I can feel it. She’s probably just, I dunno, super self-conscious about her wrists or something— Kinda like you, Call.”_ _

__“Huh?”_ _

__“You only leave your arms bare ‘cause Master Rufus won’t let you wear gloves, right?” Aaron answered._ _

__“Oh. Uh… Yeah?” Call fumbled. “I mean, uh, yeah, I’d much rather wear those stu— those gloves.”_ _

__Tamara grinned. “Don’t worry, Aaron. Call and I will help you find your soulmate. Won’t we, Call?”_ _

__Call felt the air in his throat choking him. He felt like he would throw up. “Yeah. Sure.”_ _

__\---_ _

__He stared at his wrist in front of the bathroom mirror.. Why was it visible? Was Master Rufus just fed up with him? Oh no, oh nonononono. This was far from good. After three months, Tamara was still focused on finding Aaron’s soulmate… She sure was dedicated. Call tasted actual vomit in his mouth. He emptied his stomach into the toilet, watching the gross substance flush away._ _

__Aaron and Tamara weren’t awake yet, right? He’d go to Master Rufus’s office and demand that he re-cast the magic, or something. He gripped the toilet seat and choked on his own spit. Yeah. Yeah. That sounded good. He stood up, stumbled out of the bathroom, and right into Aaron’s chest._ _

__Crap._ _

__“Call?” Aaron said quizzically. “What’re you doing up right now?”_ _

__Call shoved his arms behind his back. “U—Uh! Nothing! Nothing at all!” Yeah, as if he was going to believe _that_. But Aaron and Tamara were so dead set on his soulmate being a pretty girl that he’d marry and have a bunch of beautiful blonde children with, not a wimpy dude who couldn’t even find a few friends normally instead of tagging along with his “friends by default” all the time. _ _

__Aaron crossed his arms. “Call, tell the truth. I’m not moving until you do.”_ _

__“Oh, c’mon, Aaron, please?” Call begged._ _

__Aaron sniffed haughtily. “Wait, _why_ does it smell like puke in here? Did you—?” _ _

__Call rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, and gave Aaron a tight smile. “See? I need to go to the infirmary, so could you—” He pushed past Aaron, and the other boy reflexively took a step back, before moving forward._ _

__“I’ll come with you!” He said stubbornly. “You’ll trip and break your skull on a rock if you go alone in this state. We’re part of the same apprentice group— And we’re the only dudes. Us guys gotta stick together, y’know?” Aaron grinned._ _

__“L—Look, it’s _fine_. I promise I won’t get into trouble, I just really, _really_ need to get going,” Call moved backwards. If he ran, how far could he get before Aaron caught up and inevitably noticed his not-so-invisible wire? That was a stupid thought. With his leg, Aaron _walked_ faster than Call ran. _ _

__Aaron shook his head. “I told you! We’re friends, Call. I’m coming with you whether you like it or not.” He was walking closer…_ _

__...Call raised his hands and waved them. “Nonononono, seriously, it’s fine, I just— Ah.”_ _

__“Ah,” Aaron repeated dumbly._ _

__There it was. The wire. Gold and silver, just like Aaron’s. There was no doubt._ _

__“So _you’re_ my soulmate!” Aaron said cheerfully, visibly brightening. “I see I was worrying over nothing, then.”_ _

__“Yeah, haha…” Call bit his lip. “We must be platonic soulmates, or something. Those can happen, sometimes.”_ _

__Aaron laughed. At him. Aaron was laughing at him. Loudly. Was Tamara awake yet? Call hoped not. That would be another terrifying scenario altogether, and Call thought that Tamara probably _liked_ Aaron. _ _

__“Wh—What’re you laughing at?!” Call whisper-shouted. “What’s so funny?!” Was it because of his leg? His face? His stick limbs? Was he such an unattractive person to be around that even his platonic soulmate thought badly of him? Was Aaron only nice to him because he knew that he wouldn’t always be dealing with him?_ _

__As Call went over the billions of possibilities, Aaron took a step closer. Then another. And another. As he stood in front of Call, a couple inches taller than him, Call considered if he could just play it off. Maybe he wasn’t Aaron’s soulmate— Maybe all wires looked the same, maybe—_ _

__Aaron took Call’s chin in his hands and kissed him. On the lips. Sweetly._ _

__Chastely._ _

__“Sorry, it’s just...” Aaron giggled— _giggled_ — as he pulled away. “I can’t believe how lucky I am.”_ _

__Call’s fingers rose up to trace over his lips. Where Aaron had kissed him. And it had felt nice. As the pads of his fingers ghosted over the pink skin, he looked at Aaron._ _

__Aaron looked at him._ _

__Call gulped. “You, uh… You taste like hot chocolate.”_ _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading ;u;
> 
> I worked so hard on this tbh I love Calron srry Calmara shippers but u kno that if aaron was a girl and didn't die that Call and Aaron would've soooo dated : )
> 
> Pls comment seriously attention is a food source for me


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